Five States Voting as US Candidates Seek Knockouts, New Life

Florida is a key state in Tuesday's voting where the Republican winner will get 99 delegates.  Two new polls released Monday indicate Trump is leading by at least 17 percent there over his closest challenger, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who badly needs a win to boost his candidacy.

Another state to watch is Ohio, where Trump is locked in a close race with state Governor John Kasich.  Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee who lost to President Barack Obama, joined Kasich at campaign stops in Ohio in an effort to prevent Trump from winning the state and its 66 delegates.

In North Carolina, Missouri and Illinois, Trump had smaller leads in polls with Texas Senator Ted Cruz in second place. Voters in five U.S. states are making their choices Tuesday in presidential primaries as Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton seek to further their leads, while those trailing try to inject new life into their campaigns.

Clinton, the country's secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, campaigned Monday in Illinois, where she told cheering voters in Chicago she will fight for working people and good jobs.

Clinton has a commanding lead in delegates over her lone challenger, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist who has focused his campaign on growing income inequality and the clout of Wall Street financial chieftains.

Polls showed Clinton with big leads among Democratic voters in Florida and North Carolina, with closer contests possible in Illinois, Ohio and Missouri.  None of Tuesday's Democratic contests are winner-take-all.

Tuesday's voting is coming after days of acrimony at Trump campaign stops, where some of his supporters and those opposed to his candidacy have engaged in heated name-calling, pushing, shoving and an occasional hand-to-hand fight.

Trump at times has called for his supporters to physically engage demonstrators and regularly tells security officials to "get them out" when protesters shout at him when he is speaking.  But he says he wants peace, not trouble at his campaign events.

Trump's political foes have blamed his rhetoric for the confrontations, while he claims the Sanders campaign has dispatched supporters to Trump's rallies to disrupt them.

Sanders has denied that contention and called Trump a "pathological liar."  Clinton has called Trump a "political arsonist."